Romanian Film Cited As Year's Best

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Wednesday, September 5----------4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS, the searing drama by Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu which won the Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival this year, has added to that triumph by being named as the Film of the Year by the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI). The film, which also won the FIPRESCI Prize in Cannes, is making its Canadian Premiere next week at the Toronto International Film Festival. 

The film, the latest in a recent renaissance of Romanian cinema that includes such esteemed titles as THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU and 12:08 EAST OF BUCHAREST, is the story of friendship and sacrifice between two women during the last days of Romanian communism. College roommates Otilia (Anamaria Marinca) and Gabita (Laura Vasiliu) share an intimate secret......they are preparing for Gabita's illegal and secretly planned abortion. At a cheap hotel in downtown Bucharest, they meet with a Mr. Bebe (Vlad Ivanov), who’s set to perform the procedure but not before his demands for compensation are met. With seemingly no alternatives and determined to help her friend, Otilia finds herself drawn deep down into a rat's nest of stark realities and ugly truths. Transpiring over the course of a single day, Mungiu’s film is an immersive masterwork of naturalism, by turns poignant, shocking, and darkly comedic.

The film, which has just been nominated for a European Academy Award as Best Picture, was one of the big hits at last weekend's Telluride Film Festival and will screen at the prestigious New York Film Festival next month. The film will be released theatrically in the United States in early 2008 by IFC First Take and is very likely on the short list for Academy Award consideration, if Romania nominates its as its Oscar choice (which seems more than likely). Positive response here in Toronto will be a strong indication of its audience appeal, despite a difficult subject matter and a rather exotic locale. Critics, apparently, have been on board since day one.

Sandy Mandelberger, Toronto FF Dailies Editor